Lehigh Calculating Machine
Object Details
- Lehigh Corporation
- Description
- This pinwheel, lever-set non-printing calculating machine has a black metal case painted black, and 12 levers that are moved forward and down to set the brass pinwheels. Digits are indicated to the left of each lever on the case, and a register at the top of the machine indicates the number entered. There levers have a zeroing bar. To the left of the levers is a divide/multiply lever. On the right side is an operating crank with a wooden handle.
- At the front a movable carriage has a row of 12 windows on the left side that shows the digits on the revolution counter and a row of 20 windows on the right for showing totals. There is a carry in the revolution counter. Rotating thumbscrews at the ends of the carriage zero the registers on it. All three registers have sliding decimal markers. A mechanismat the front releases the carriage shift.
- The machine rests on a metal base that has a metal handle at the front. The bottom has four rubber feet.
- A mark stenciled on the front of the machine reads: LEHIGH (/) CALCULATOR. A mark stenciled on the back reads: LEHIGH (/) CALCULATOR (/) [...]ANUFACTURED & GUARANTEED (/) BY (/) THE LEHIGH (/) CORPORATION (/) NEW YORK, U.S.A. (/) FACTORY - NEWARK, N.J. (/) PATENTED (/) (OTHER PATENTS PENDING) (/) AUG. 4, 1921 (/) APR.25, 1922 (/) MAY 3, 1922. The serial number, stamped on the bottom, is: 8145.
- The patent dates on the machine apparently refer to patents taken out by Hugo Enders of Lehighton, Pa., and then Belleville, N.J., in 1921 and 1922, although the dates do not match precisely in all cases. Enders took out patents relating to calculating machines and assigned them to the Lehigh Corporation of New York City, N.Y.
- According to Typewriter Topics, the Lehigh calculating machine was introduced in about July of 1920, when it was manufactured in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. By 1922, the Lehigh Corporation had completed a new factory in Newark, New Jersey. It stopped selling machines the following year.
- Compare Triumphator calculating machine MA.323655.
- References:
- “The Lehigh Calculating Machine,” Typewriter Topics, vol. 45 # 3, July, 1920, p. 260.
- “Gaining the Lehigh Objective,” Typewriter Topics, vol. 50 #2, February, 1922, pp. 190, 193.
- J. H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago: American Exchange Service, 1924, p. 549.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of L. Leland Locke
- 1922-1923
- ID Number
- MA.311946
- catalog number
- 311946
- accession number
- 155183
- maker number
- 8145
- Object Name
- calculating machine
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- rubber (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 17.1 cm x 44.3 cm x 22 cm; 6 23/32 in x 17 7/16 in x 8 21/32 in
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Calculating Machines
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_692283
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-20d2-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
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